The Florida Panthers Are One Win Away From “Repeating” As NHL Champions

The Florida Panthers are one win away from repeating as NHL champions, after a pretty easy (they led (2-0) as stars Brad Marchand “opened” and Sam Bennett notched his 5th goal of the Cup final, then (3-0) (3-1) (4-1) and (4-2)–after a (5-2) Saturday night win, at Edmonton, vs the Oilers.

Last season, the Panthers had a (3-0) final round lead vs the Oilers, before needing a 7th game (thus a home loss in #5) home (2-1) win (Sam Reinhart had the game winning goal, Evan Rodrigues “opened” and “Bob,” Serg Bobrovsky was stellar in goal) (2-1) win to claim their first title and hand the Oilers a second straight 7th game final round defeat, the other at the Carolina (Hurricanes-that area’s football team the Panthers are (0-2) in final rounds/Super Bowls), in 2006.

This is the first of the eleven combined Cup final rounds in which Florida or Edmonton appeared, that the series was (2-2) and not (3-1) or complete after 4 games. The last “such” was the eventual 2019 St. Louis Blues’ 7 game triumph, winning at Boston (Bruins), a big Panthers’ rival, yet they dealt the superb player, Marchand, to “Fla” at the trade deadline this year, after failing to title in a home 6th game.

While Edmonton, which had overcome a (3-0) deficit after one period in #4 (“Fla” has outscored “Edm” (7-0) in the last three first periods and scored first in 4 of the 5 tilts thus far) and won (5-4) on Leon Draisaitl’s second overtime goal of the series, but are now likely, but far from certain, to lose in a third straight final round, a la the NFL San Francisco 49ers, after winning in 5 consecutive such entities.

Paul Maurice’s Panthers failed to clinch at home up (3-2) vs Toronto in the “quarters” and ahead (3-1) vs Carolina in the semis plus the above cited 3 failures in games in which they did not face elimination, one at home in last year’s final round series vs Edmonton.

Sam Bennett, pictured above, with 15 goals in these ‘offs is I suppose the favorite to win the Conn Smythe Trophy as the entire ‘offs most valuable player if Florida does win a second straight crown.